Dark Universe

The survivors live underground, as far from the Original World as possible and protected from the ultimate evil, Radiation. Then terrible monsters, who bring with them a screaming silence, are seen and people start to disappear. One young man realizes he must question the nature of Darkness itself.

Tau Zero

This science fiction novel describes the epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine. From practically the very first minute, Tau Zero sets scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers, exploring the effect of time contraction due to traveling at near-light speed on the human psyche. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel, as 50 crewmembers settle in for the long journey together.

Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism

Religious fundamentalists and biblical literalists present any number of arguments that attempt to disprove evolution. Those with a sympathetic ear often fail to critically examine these creationist claims, leading to an ill-informed public and, perhaps more troubling, ill-advised public policy. As Aron Ra makes clear, however, every single argument deployed by creationists in their attacks on evolution is founded on fundamental scientific, religious, and historical falsehoods - all of them.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street. Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

Rendezvous with Rama

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.

Star Maker

One moment a man sits on a suburban hill, gazing curiously at the stars. The next, he is whirling through the firmament, and perhaps the most remarkable of all science fiction journeys has begun. Even Stapledon's other great work, 'Last and First Men' pales in ambition next to 'Star Maker' which presents nothing less than an entire imagined history of life in the universe, encompassing billions of years.

Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science

In this hugely entertaining sequel to the New York Times best-selling memoir An Appetite for Wonder, Richard Dawkins delves deeply into his intellectual life spent kick-starting new conversations about science, culture, and religion and writing yet another of the most audacious and widely read books of the 20th century - The God Delusion.

Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies

What is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's anti-disciplinarian César Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands transcending the social sciences and including the natural sciences of information, networks, and complexity. To understand the growth of economies, Hidalgo argues, we first need to understand the growth of order.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World

How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.

Aurora

A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, Aurora tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.

The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself

Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?

Time's Eye: A Time Odyssey, Book 1

For eons, Earth has been under observation by the Firstborn, beings almost as old as the universe itself. The Firstborn are unknown to humankind - until they act. In an instant, Earth is carved up and reassembled like a huge jigsaw puzzle. Suddenly the planet and every living thing on it no longer exist in a single timeline.

Quantum: A Guide for the Perplexed

From Schrodinger's cat to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, this book untangles the weirdness of the quantum world. Quantum mechanics underpins modern science and provides us with a blueprint for reality itself. And yet it has been said that if you're not shocked by it, you don't understand it. But is quantum physics really so unknowable? Is reality really so strange? And just how can cats be half alive and half dead at the same time?

Nine Princes in Amber: The Chronicles of Amber, Book 1

Amber is the one real world, of which all others including our own Earth are but Shadows. Amber burns in Corwin's blood. Exiled on Shadow Earth for centuries, the prince is about to return to Amber to make a mad and desperate rush upon the throne.

To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science

In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries, from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand or how to understand it.

Writing Creative Nonfiction

Bringing together the imaginative strategies of fiction storytelling and new ways of narrating true, real-life events, creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing part of the creative writing world. It's a cutting-edge genre that's reshaping how we write (and read) everything from biographies and memoirs to blogs and public speaking scripts to personal essays and magazine articles.

Contact

The future is here...in an adventure of cosmic dimension. In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who - or what - is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future - and our own.

Ringworld

Welcome to Ringworld, an intermediate step between Dyson Spheres and planets. The gravitational force created by a rotation on its axis of 770 miles per second means no need for a roof. Walls 1,000 miles high at each rim will let in the sun and prevent much air from escaping. Larry Niven's novel, Ringworld, is the winner of the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1970 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the 1972 Ditmars, an Australian award for Best International Science Fiction.

Stories of Your Life and Others

This new edition of Ted Chiang's masterful first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, includes his first eight published stories. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers listeners the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar.

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

From early work like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre", through classic stories including "The Star", "Earthlight", "The Nine Billion Names of God", and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like "A Meeting with Medusa" and "The Hammer of God", this comprehensive short story collection encapsulates one of the great science fiction careers of all time.

The Gods Themselves

Only a few know the terrifying truth - an outcast Earth scientist, a rebellious alien inhabitant of a dying planet, a lunar-born human intuitionist who senses the imminent annihilation of the Sun... They know the truth - but who will listen? They have foreseen the cost of abundant energy - but who will believe?These few beings, human and alien, hold the key to the Earth's survival.

Way Station

In this Hugo Award-winning classic, Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he had done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.

Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen

In Dialogue, Robert McKee offers in-depth analysis for how characters speak on the screen, on the stage, and on the page in believable and engaging ways. From Macbeth to Breaking Bad, McKee deconstructs key scenes to illustrate the strategies and techniques of dialogue. Dialogue applies a framework of incisive thinking to instruct the prospective writer on how to craft artful, impactful speech.

Publisher's Summary

Richard Dawkins Recommends this science-fiction classic, in which an immense cloud of gas enters the solar system, blocks the sun, and threatens to wipe out most of life on Earth. In Britain, a team of scientists gathers at a secret location to deal with the crisis. But as the months pass, what they learn will challenge everything they believe about the nature of life and the universe.

BONUS AUDIO: In an exclusive introduction, evolutionary biologist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins explains why he considers The Black Cloud, written by the late astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, to be "one of the greatest works of science fiction ever written".

If you could sum up The Black Cloud in three words, what would they be?

Grounded hard sci-fi.

What did you like best about this story?

The twist...

Which scene was your favorite?

The description of the cloud's effects on the earth: sci-fi writers usual stuff up the details (because what they write is usually just fantasy in space) but Hoyle brings his enormous learning and knowledge to bear and the results are awesome.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

When space came down to Earth (?)

Any additional comments?

The Black Cloud is possibly too dry for anyone without a real interest in science, and probably too intellectually demanding for those who just want cliched heroics and explosions every 10 minutes...

I was strongly recommended to read this one, by my husband (astrophysicist) who has read it in 1960s and by Richard Dawkins' page. I do not regret. It is splendid, wonderful and SO full of knowledge - and I lked the strongly atheistic side of the book as well. A wonderful read, much more worth reading than "average" sci-fic. books. But I must adnit, I am a physicist and an atheist.

What made the experience of listening to The Black Cloud the most enjoyable?

As a (retired) scientist, I especially enjoyed the realism of the description of how scientists work and think and interact.

It was also interesting to reflect on scientific leaders are controlled by their funding agencies, and Hoyle's fictional rants against politicians should appeal to a universal audience.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All the primary characters were convincingly portrayed. They were also as interesting and as diverse as real scientists.

Any additional comments?

Climate science, as known at the time of this book, played a key role in helping earth survive the arrival of the Black Cloud. Interestingly, their research and knowledge soon became highly politicized and was declared secret by the government, reminding me of the Manhattan Project.It was interesting to consider the author's speculations on the nature of highly advanced life forms, and how limited our own minds may be in comparison to more highly evolved life forms.

Like the reader of the introduction, Richard Dawkins, I first read The Black Cloud many years ago. I was fascinated then by the debate over the universe...Steady State (the Hoyle thesis) or the Big Bang, which is now widely accepted. Even today, while the Steady State theory might be out of favour, I still prefer a variation on this, rather than the Big Bang. Its still a fascinating question! Thus the novel is about what might be going on out there in the vastness, and Hoyle's description of how the human race might respond to something quite different to us dropping by is amusing. The book is quaintly dated in some ways, but still worth it, especially if you were around at the time when it was written.

What three words best describe Jack Klaff and Richard Dawkins (Introduction) ’s performance?

Dawkins' introduction was interesting and established the time frame and scientific context in which the novel was written. It would be very useful for those who are not familiar with the book.The reader ,Jack Klaff, was a bit "prim", that Tony Blair type of British accent, and the accents he gave his non British characters were at times excruciating. (I'm sure his Australian listeners would wince at the Aussie scientist, but perhaps that's just being petty!) Apart from that, it was well done.

I read this book as a teenager and found this audio version just as good - and it took me back. Because of its time-frame (mid-20th century) some people might find it a little old-fashioned, but the story is plausible. Sir Fred Hoyle's scientific background helps educate while he entertains.... which makes the plot believable.

The story flows well and keep you engaged and the narration is clear and crisp. The characters are well defined by both the writer and the narrator. I was not disappointed in my memory of the original read.

Is it wrong when you want to punch one of the characters? The pompous scientist written in these books that manipulates governments on the belief that he is superior so he is right is why scientists have such a hard time PR-wise....Overall an interesting book from the distant past of SF.

Hoyle's The Black Cloud is very good science fiction, not boring at all, as some have said, but engaging, interesting and quite plausible. Add to this an interesting introduction by Richard Dawkins and an excellent narration by Jack Klaff and you get an audiobook which is quite close to perfection.

Loved it! In this great book, we are clearly living out the fantasy of the author. Young boys fantasize about being a tough cowboy and saving the damsel from the Indians, or being a fearless spaceman and seeing off aliens. A 42-year-old astronomer?s idea of a fantasy is evidently to receive professional and intellectual kudos from everyone he meets; receive an infinite research budget from the evil government whilst humiliating them at the same time; having casual sex with the belle of the ball and generally having his peers whisper to each other how darned clever he is whenever he walks past them at a terribly important convention where he is the guest speaker. Good for him, I say. If Hoyle wanted his protagonist to be a Christ-like astronomer, walking in a halo of unassailable intellect and having his peers and foes alike trembling in his presence, then that?s his call.

The accents used by the narrator for some of the characters are notable more for their comedic qualities rather than any dramatic accuracy. One eminent American scientists profundities are somewhat undermined from sounding like 'Benny the Ball' from Top Cat; the transient romantic interest is described as "husky", but sounds like she has been long-harbouring a sixty-a-day habit, and two of the British Cabinet members sound like they are struggling to keep hold of their false teeth. Another American is clearly concealing a half-Australian, half-cockney heritage whilst a plot element has the cloud sounding to originate from Cirencester.

The technicalities of the cloud are a bit shaky, such as the propulsion system which I shall not go into here. For most of the book I had images of this gaseous super-organism finally arriving at Earth and starting its great speech to us lesser planet-bound people when, upon realising it was still falling into the Sun, truncating its speech with the words "Oh...bugger!" before rather embarrassingly disappearing forever.

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

D. Carver

2/1/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Skip the intro!"

The story is relatively straightforward with few reveals or surprises, except that is for the introduction which is one giant spoiler. Creationists will be happy to leap on this as proof that Dawkins is no genius although perhaps the producers should also share the blame they place it inside chapter one making it harder to skip. Still it would make a reasonable epilogue.The story holds up well despite showing its origins in the late 50s. It's simple straightforward entertainment made more interesting by a generous lacing of real science.I was thoroughly entertained but would have been much less so if I'd listened to Mr Dawkins.Jack Klaff does a good job of the narration which requires a broad array of accents and I attribute its stiffness to the nature on 1950s characters rather than any flaw of Klaff's.This is genuinely classic SF and worth a listen.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

M. Davies

Cheshire, UK

3/9/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Dated and childish ..."

Dated and childish. If you love good scifi don't read this silly book. Arthur C Clarke is much better old school stuff.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Rich Cassidy

Bath, UK

10/24/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"Academic and dull"

What disappointed you about The Black Cloud?

To be honest I found this book a complete let down. Generally a very slow story, overly academic writing filled with tedious, un-engaging characters. I had heard good things about it and was looking forward to a really good plot with strong scientific roots. Unfortunately the science smothered the story.

What was most disappointing about Fred Hoyle’s story?

I've enjoyed a number of other sci-fi titles from around this period, but the lack of humanity in the characters left me cold. Firmly set in the world of academia, it felt very narrow, one dimensional.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

It's difficult to be sure how much the story is to blame when I found the narrating not to my taste either. The characters voices were too much, and the pace just too slow.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The premise was good. The science was good too, but it just overwhelmed everything. I got so bored by it I couldn't even finish it. By the time I gave up everyone seemed doomed, and to be honest I really wasn't that bothered it they lived or died!

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

alan

wirral, United Kingdom

12/23/12

Overall

"The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle"

The real power of this book is in its basic realism and to some extent its nostalgia as the characters and the technology are rooted in the sixties.

The events in the book could all have happened then and Hoyle describes brilliantly how a disaster facing the earth would play out although in our more enlightened times,everyone -not just the scientists and politicians-would be aware of the facts through the media and internet.

Although the characters are considerably wooden,they are clever and believable enough to instruct us in some basic scientific thinking and methodology which keeps the reader interested throughout.

The later parts of the book are a bit silly to say the least but we have already had a good enough trip before then to let this go and anyway the epilogue makes up for any minor mistakes.

The book is beautifully read and the characters brought to life by Jack Klaff who makes all the different accents seem very real.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Donna

HolollaFinland

4/30/10

Overall

"What a great surprise!"

Intelligent and engaging.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Richard

Oxford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

3/19/10

Overall

"An academic fantasy about running the world"

Preposterous end-of-Empire, 1960s English scientist as saviour of the world. The exposure of scientific methods is rewarding but the aspergic, misogynist twit at the center does not make for good literature. Nor does the archaic , class-ridden language. An academic fantasy about how wonderful a Cambridge academic can be - no value placed on people, lives or character. A good demonstration of why scientists should be nowhere near the levers of power. Dawkin's introduction does not make the prose any better but does appreciate the expose of scientific method on the book.

2 of 4 people found this review helpful

Kevin

BLACKPOOLUnited Kingdom

1/28/10

Overall

"The best and worst of scientists"

The introduction from Dawkins waxes lyrical about the scientific accuracy of the book and gives a potted history of the author. My complaint is, is it gives away some spoilers. Although Dawkins seems to be holding back in order to avoid giving away more information than he actually does. I'd preferred Dawkins reflect at the end, & reflect in detail. I felt the need to listen back to the introduction again after I had listened to the book.
From a scientific point of view, this book really seems to have got things right. By coincidence after listening to the book I listened to an interview with Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) which describes methods the institute use to make contact with ET.There were allot of similarities with Hoyles book, including the details of radiowave frequencies. I was suprised at these similarities as the book was written in 1957. I didn?t feel the book was too dated although it was amusing to hear of the single ?Electronic Computer?. I was generally able to follow all the science stuff, although there were a few pieces which went above my head. In fact the science bit that I couldn?t understand is the only part of the book where I felt it dragged.
My only criticism of the book is the lack of , for want of a better word, humanity. When human lives are lost, they are described in terms of number of deaths, rather than any sense of personal loss. There is a token paragraph in which a couple of minor characters die but this feels tagged on and is never mentioned again. Also characters seemed happy to be trapped in a certain place because they were relatively safe & no mention of loved ones who apparently left behind.
The main character is the worst stenotype of arrogant scientist. In the book the arrogance is payed off because he often turns out to be right. Others have said that the author based this character on himself this doesn?t say much about him.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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